When asked to picture a mean teacher, the minds of the vast majority of SIS students will likely conjure up a teacher harshly slamming down a summative with a grade of any number less than 90 percent scribbled on. The paper may be covered in notes for improvement before the next summative or reasoning for why points were deducted, but the final score blinds students from anything else.

Our definition of “mean” has evolved to be based almost exclusively on a teacher’s grading system. In other words, if a teacher tends to frequently give scores in the upper nineties, they are deemed good, while those who take a more stringent grading approach are considered mean. It is not uncommon to hear insults targeted at such teachers, arguing that said teacher is being “unreasonable” or “unfair.”

Students are not entirely to blame for this abnormal mindset; SIS is undoubtedly a realm of competition and academic stress. Amidst the flurry of unrealistic expectations and pressure, however, students have evidently lost sight of what grades should truly represent, and the effect is unwarranted hostility toward teachers. The unjustified antagonism of these teachers must stop.

This antagonism comes from our dependence on high grades, which is rooted in the belief that we attend class simply to achieve good grades to gain admission into prestigious universities. This belief is further enforced by familial pressures to perform perfectly in academics. The prioritization of memorizing content for grades over truly understanding the material has become commonplace. This has led students to mistakenly see lower grades as failure, instead of an opportunity to understand the gaps in their knowledge. Especially as grade curves grow more uncommon, these lower grades have become more prevalent.

When faced with a disappointing grade, it is understandable that students’ first instinct may be to challenge the grade by making complaints to the teacher who assigned the low score. Nevertheless, I argue that this solution is counterproductive at best and entirely unhelpful at worst. While issuing complaints may provide a temporary sense of relief, continued reliance on this method may leave students unprepared for real-world circumstances where results cannot be negotiated, and truly understanding a concept matters.

What many students do not realize in the emotional turbulence of the moment, is that these “mean” teachers may be the key to their post-graduation success. Although grades are a big factor in college admissions, they are not the most important thing that students should gain from school. After graduation from high school and college, grades are nonexistent, meaning the mindless, repetitive process adopted by many SIS students of memorizing, taking a test, and then forgetting all the material shortly after will become obsolete.

Rigorous grading exposes students to the realities of the real world by teaching the importance of critical thinking, thorough understanding, resilience, and, most importantly, the ability to handle constructive criticism and slight setbacks. Life skills are arguably more valuable for students to develop than the academic material contained in summatives.

By holding students to high standards instead of simply adjusting scores to meet demands, teachers ensure that students can genuinely learn, grow, and develop skills necessary for adulthood. In other words, the same teachers that the majority of students deem unkind are actually the ones who teach them the most indispensable skills for success in the future.

Teachers, please continue upholding the high standards that allow students to grow into critical and resilient thinkers. Students, please keep in mind that a disappointing grade is not a failure, and a teacher’s reputation should not be determined based on their grading scale.